MEMOIR.

The subject of this memoir was born at Malpas, in Cheshire, April 2, 1783, and was admitted into the Christian fold by the holy sacrament of water; at which time he was named Reginald, after his venerable sire, who filled the important office of parish priest at Merton, in Yorkshire. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Allanson, a clergyman of the same county.

Young Heber was a child of early promise, and his vouthful mind was soon imbibed by an overpowering love for the Holy Word; on this he might almost have been literally said "to meditate day and night." He also displayed an early fondness for poetry, and had the high advantage of receiving the rudiments of his education under his excellent father, and thence passed to the care and tutorage of Dr. Bristow, having previously studied for some time in the grammar school of Whitchurch. While at the academy of Dr. Bristow he made considerable progress in his learning, and a

the proper age was entered an under-graduate of Brazennose College, Oxford, where he adopted the habit of early rising, and suffered no opportunity to pass unimproved; and it was here, that acting by the advice of his tutor, he was induced by the subject of Palestine being given out as an English prize poem, to prepare the best of his poetical productions, which was judged worthy to receive the prize, and admitted into no mean niche in the temple of literary fame.

In his twenty-first year, that is in 1804, our young scholar was elected a fellow of All Souls, and here he pursued his studies with unremitting ardour. The year following he resolved to visit the continent of Europe, and visited the countries of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Russia, Hungary and Germany, in the company of his friend John Thornton, Esq. By this tour he profited much, and returned to his college with an unabated thirst for knowledge and desire of improvement. After his return; writing of All Souls, he says, "the very air of the place breathes study. While I write I am enjoying the luxuries of a bright coal-fire, a green desk, and a tea-kettle bubbling."

Previous to his leaving England he had published an essay on "the sense of honor;" and about two